The recall of pork tainted with penicillin likely will have little impact on consumer confidence in the meat industry, but it should be a wake-up call for producers, says the president of the hog plant forced to recall the meat.
Stu Irvine, of Mitchell’s Gourmet Foods said producers must look closely at their farm records to ensure hogs treated with penicillin or other antibiotics aren’t shipped from the farm before the required drug withdrawal period.
“It’s a wake-up call for a lot of producers,” said Irvine. He said producers need to double check that the correct protocol is in place before hogs leave the farm.
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About 40 percent of the hogs shipped to the Saskatoon slaughter plant come from farms using the Canadian Quality Assurance program, operated by the Canadian Pork Council. By April 29, 2002 all hogs accepted at the plant must be part of the program to ensure producers follow prescribed food safety standards.
The recalled meat came from 215 hogs at the Carmichael Hutterite Colony in southeastern Saskatchewan, whose pork barn is on the Canadian Quality Assurance program.
Dawn LeBlanc, national co-ordinator for the quality assurance program said it and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency are doing independent on-farm investigations to discover how the hogs could have been shipped with penicillin residue.
Under the program, producers must record all drug use and note any broken needles. The program requires a full program validation every three years and a yearly review of records. LeBlanc said there are no plans to review the program based on this recall, but there is a review of the program under way.
The Hutterite colony couldn’t be reached for comment.
Irvine met with members of the Carmichael colony Dec. 14 and on Dec. 17 with Sask Pork, which monitors the Canadian Quality Assurance program in Saskatchewan. The company said it will not accept any more hogs from the colony until it has assurances the problem that caused the recall is solved.
Earlier there were threats of a lawsuit against the colony, but Irvine said he would prefer to come to an out-of-court agreement about the damages caused the company.
Don Hepburn, director of the animal program network for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in Western Canada, said the results of its on-farm tests would be known this week.
Hepburn said the agency had fewer than six calls from consumers about the recall. All the callers wanted to know how the agency checks meat in packing plants.
At Mitchell’s plant, 18,000 hogs are slaughtered each week and six are checked by the CFIA each week.
Martin Rice, executive secretary of the Canadian Pork Council, is interested in the investigation of the quality assurance program and in any shortcomings it may have.
Rice said he doesn’t see the recall as a sign of a larger problem, but as part of a system that catches the rare violator.
“We’re not getting any indication from customers there has been a major loss in industry credibility.”
Jenny Hillard of the Consumers Association of Canada also doubts consumers will lose confidence in the meat industry because of the recall.
“I get much more worried if there’s nothing getting recalled,” said Hillard. “A recall is a sign the system is working.”
Mitchell’s has had about 100 calls from consumers, producers and supermarket managers about the recall. Because the company recalled specific code-dated lots, consumers weren’t concerned about the overall safety of the pork, just the recalled lots.
